A metropolis is a city that has reached a population of one million as a result of the merger of several settlements. And although there are 13 megalopolises in Russia today, there is no such concept in Russian legislation.
Moscow with a population of more than ten million people, and St. Petersburg with a population of more than four million people have the status of federal subjects, and the rest of the cities with a population of more than 1 million people have the status of municipalities.
Abroad, the word “megalopolis” has a different meaning, since there are settlements with a huge area of population settlement, and according to the UN definition, a megalopolis is a city with a population of more than 10 million people. According to the terminology of the United Nations Organization, the only city in Russia that can be considered a metropolis is the city of Moscow.
In the history of mankind, the largest ancient city is the city of Abydos in Egypt, whose population was 20 thousand people. Cities with a population of over a million people appear only at the beginning of the nineteenth century - these were the cities of London, New York and Tokyo. The formation of a city with a huge population is due to simple reasons, which are based on the search for jobs with high earnings.
The difference between a city and a metropolis is its population density. There are 8.1 thousand people per one square kilometer in the city of Moscow, in Paris this figure rises to 20.5 thousand, and the highest indicator of population density belongs to the city of Cairo, in which there are 33.1 thousand people per 1 square kilometer. Also, cities from megacities are distinguished by the pendulum migration of residents. This is due to the fact that people living in satellite cities have their jobs in the metropolis itself. And the saddest difference between a megalopolis and a city lies in the lack of operational and complete information about the urban economy from the authorities. All differences are organizational.
Each metropolis has its own unique features that differentiate metropolitan areas from each other. These unique features are due to the history of the development of the metropolis. For example, Moscow is a city of intensive development, because at present the federal authorities are located in Moscow.
